California






Fossil Fuels

Exxon takes legal action against California AG, ecological groups for defaming recycling efforts

Exxon Mobil submitted a lawsuit on Monday against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several ecological groups, court records reveal, accusing them of defaming and disparaging the oil giant's advanced plastics recycling initiatives. The suit signifies how Exxon is significantly resisting against ecologists and other critics, who have long brought lawsuits versus the company declaring its participation in environment change and rising greenhouse gas emissions. Submitted in federal court in Beaumont, Texas, the claim implicated Bonta and the activists of disparaging Exxon's advanced recycling technology. Exxon implicated Bonta of acting in concert with Australian business rivals of the oil giant....



Energy Markets

Electric Utilities

Electric Utilities

Southern California Edison gear will ignite more fires than in previous years by 2024

In 2024, SCE equipment will ignite nearly 60% more fires No cause yet determined for the Eaton Canyon fire that SCE is being sued for SCE partially blames the weather for increasing fire ignitions Tim McLaughlin Southern California Edison equipment caused nearly 60% more fires than the previous year in 2024. These were mostly small fires that were quickly put out as the utility fought to prevent disaster in the months before the Los Angeles wildfires. SCE disclosed in its quarterly report to regulators this month that the escalation in fire ignitions on their territory preceded the multiple wildfires which...

Electric Utilities

Edison Utility faces a shareholder lawsuit for wildfires in LA

Southern California Edison's parent company has been sued by shareholders for allegedly misleading them before the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area, when it assured them that they could shut down the power lines to minimize the risk of catastrophic damages. The proposed class action filed against Edison International on Tuesday appears to be the initial shareholder lawsuit stemming directly from the Eaton Fire, which began in Altadena (California) east of Los Angeles during the Santa Ana winds. The fire destroyed over 9,400 structures, and 17 people were killed. Edison did not immediately comment on the complaint, but said...

Electric Utilities

Southern California Edison shares brand-new information on transmission lines in Eaton amidst wildfire probe

Southern California Edison, an unit of utility Edison International, said on Monday initial analysis of data showed a short-lived and expected boost in existing on its energized lines in the Eaton Canyon corridor on Jan. 7 evening. Fire officials have not discovered SCE to be responsible for the Los Angeles fires. However the company's infrastructure is being examined and it deals with a number of claims declaring its devices triggered the harmful Eaton fire. The current update from the company comes a day after a New York Times report that included brand-new video footage of electrical arcing and analysis pointing...

Electric Utilities

LA public utility's wildfire liability depend upon devices's function, Moody's says

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's (LADWP) possible liability for the recent Palisades Fire will depend on whether the utility's power lines or assets were associated with sparking the wildfire, credit rating company Moody's said in a report on Friday. The reason for the lethal Palisades Fire, which has actually burned almost 24,000 acres considering that appearing on Jan. 7, is still under examination. LADWP, the largest U.S. community utility, has not yet filed an event report associated to the blaze, Moody's. stated. Damage to LADWP's circulation lines and other. infrastructure will likely not materially affect the utility's....

Electric Utilities

Eaton fire victim pushes for more California utility devices to be analyzed

Lawyers for a lady who lost her home in the Los Angelesarea Eaton Fire submitted an emergency request late on Thursday for Southern California Edison to protect additional electrical devices to be taken a look at in blaze examinations, court filings reveal. Multiple fires that started to burn and quickly spread across Los Angeles in strong Santa Ana wind gusts last week have eliminated more than 2 dozen individuals and charred some 40,000 acres of the second-largest U.S. city area. While main investigators have actually not released the reason for the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, citizens and entrepreneur with destroyed...

Electric Utilities

Eaton fire victim pushes for more CA utility equipment to be examined

Lawyers for a lady who lost her home in the Los Angelesarea Eaton Fire filed an emergency situation demand late on Thursday for Southern California Edison to protect extra electrical equipment to be taken a look at in blaze examinations, court filings show. Several fires that started to burn and rapidly spread across Los Angeles in strong Santa Ana wind gusts last week have killed more than 2 dozen individuals and charred some 40,000 acres of the second-largest U.S. city location. While main detectives have not launched the reason for the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, residents and company owner with...

Electric Utilities

Battery facility fire at California power plant site spurs evacuation orders

A fire at a battery center on the site of Vistra Corp's Moss Landing power plant in Monterey County, California has actually prompted orders for the evacuation of places nearby, the business and county officials said on Thursday. The fire started in a building which contains lithium-ion batteries on Thursday afternoon, an official at the Monterey County Constable's workplace said, adding that about 40% of the building had been taken in as of late Thursday. The battery energy storage center at Moss Landing is among the biggest worldwide, according to Vistra's website. Both Vistra and the county official said that...

Electric Utilities

Moody's states LA fire may position threat to Southern California Edison

The Eaton Fire in central Los Angeles County poses a potential credit threat to power company Southern California Edison, which operates electrical lines in the location where the damaging blaze initially started, Moody's Rankings said in a report on Thursday. WHY IT is very important Fire investigators have not released a cause for the lethal Eaton Blaze, which has burned more than 14,000 acres considering that beginning on Jan. 7. Despite the uncertainty over what caused the disaster, numerous suits submitted against SCE this week implicate devices owned by the largest Southern California electric energy of triggering the initial flames....

Electric Utilities

State auditor concerns energy SoCal Edison's fire threat modeling

State energy regulators will vote Thursday on Southern California Edison's. wildfiremitigation plan, which security auditors have actually stated does. not properly evaluate the threat of blazes throughout extreme winds,. filings show. SCE's upgraded 2025 wildfire-mitigation plan before the. California Public Utilities Commission brings added weight in. metro Los Angeles, where effective Santa Ana wind gusts spread. catastrophic blazes this month in what is expected to be the. most pricey natural catastrophe in U.S. history. Fire officials have actually not discovered SCE, a system of Edison. International, to be responsible for the fires. But the. business's facilities is being examined and...

Electric Utilities

California energy deals with billions in claims for fire damage even if it not did anything wrong

Victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, likely the costliest in U.S. history, are seizing upon an unique California legal teaching that enables them to gather from their power energy if its devices triggered the blaze even if the company did nothing wrong. Numerous suits were filed today by victims of the Eaton fire, which broke out east of the city, versus Southern California Edison, a system of Edison International. The suits declare that the business's high-voltage transmission towers were the source of the disastrous blaze, which was driven by dangerous high winds and lower humidity. Edison has said that it...

Electric Utilities

Los Angeles energy sued for Palisades Fire water shortage, court filing shows

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was sued on Monday on claims that it stopped working to effectively manage water products vital to eliminating the fatal Palisades Fire, which has actually eliminated a minimum of 8 people and ruined countless structures, a court filing showed. The lawsuit, submitted on behalf of residents and others impacted by the historic blaze that damaged the West Los Angeles community of Pacific Palisades, states LADWP needs to have kept water in a close-by tank, which was dry at the time the fire first appeared last Tuesday. The Palisades Fire has actually been...

Electric Utilities

Southern California Edison sued over function of equipment in LA wildfires

Southern California Edison, a system of utility company Edison International, on Monday was sued on claims that its electrical devices started one of the significant wildfires raving in the Los Angeles area, according to court filings. At least 24 individuals have actually passed away in the fires that began last Tuesday, and more than 150,000 homeowners have been required to flee their homes. More than 2 dozen people are reported missing out on, authorities said. The lawsuit, submitted in a Los Angeles Superior Court, is on behalf of a group of house owners, renters, business owners and others with properties...

Environment

Carbon Emissions

US EPA sends Congress a Biden-approved California EV Plan

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday that it had submitted to Congress, for review and possible repeal, the Biden Administration's approval of California’s landmark plan to stop the sale of gasoline only vehicles by 2035. The new Trump administration's decision gives the Republican-led Congress a shot at repealing the Biden decision that granted California a Clean Air Act waiver for its program in accordance with the Congressional Review Act. Donald Trump, as a presidential candidate, promised to revoke approvals given by the EPA for California to require more EVs. He also pledged to tighten vehicle emission standards. These...

Environment

California asks insurers for $1 billion to support FAIR Plan following the LA Fires

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara requested that the commission's members provide $1 billion to support the FAIR Plan, which is backed by the state. Wildfires devastated large areas of Los Angeles and the surrounding area last month. Lara directed the people responsible for the FAIR Plan, an insurance program that helps property owners who can't find coverage on private markets, to hire more staff. She also told them to use all funds available including reinsurance and reserves. Officials have reported that two fires, one on each side of Los Angeles, burned an area the size of Washington, D.C. from January...

Environment

Los Angeles has a moonshot opportunity to rebuild after fires

Los Angeles is recovering from the devastating wildfires. Environmental engineers, urban planners, and experts in natural disasters are all casting visions for what might come next. Where parking lots and strip malls once existed, apartment buildings could be built, and locals would walk to shops, offices, and cafes on the ground floor, European-style. It would be better to "infill" the city vertically with affordable housing in safe downtown areas rather than spreading outwards and adding more single-family houses on fire-prone hillside. Some blocks could become buffer zones where building is prohibited. The city's palm trees that burn like Roman Candles...

Climate Change

Pollution

Pollution

Environment workers rush to remove toxic debris from the LA fires

First, there were the rapid-fires that caused so much destruction. Workers are now tackling the delicate and massive task of cleaning up hazardous debris from the wreckage of the homes that were destroyed in the Los Angeles fires earlier this month. Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to speed up the removal of contaminated materials. His administration set a deadline of Feb. 25, 2019. On Thursday, workers in hazmat suits and hard hats, as well as other protective gear, picked through the rubble to find paint cans, batteries, and other items. The buckets were emptied...

Pollution

Trump transition group plans sweeping rollback of Biden EV, emissions policies

Inbound U.S. President Donald Trump's shift group is recommending sweeping changes to cut off assistance for electric cars and charging stations and to reinforce procedures obstructing automobiles, elements and battery materials from China, according to a file seen . The recommendations, which have actually not been formerly reported, come as the U.S. electric-vehicle shift stalls and China's greatly subsidized EV industry continues to rise, in part since of its superior battery supply chain. On the project path, Trump promised to alleviate policies on fossil-fuel cars and trucks and roll back what he called President Joe Biden's EV mandate. The shift...

Pollution

United States Supreme Court to hear dispute over California tailpipe emissions, EV requirements

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a bid by fuel producers to challenge California's. requirements for car emissions and electrical cars under a. federal air contamination law in a major case checking the. Democraticgoverned state's power to combat greenhouse gases. The justices used up an appeal by a Valero Energy. subsidiary and fuel market groups of a lower court's rejection. of their obstacle to a decision by Democratic President Joe. Biden's administration allow California to set its own. policies. The disagreement fixates an exception approved to California in. 2022 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to nationwide....

Pollution

Wildfire forces evacuations in Malibu, California; students shelter in location

Constable deputies in Malibu, California, just north of Los Angeles, were going door to door before the break of occur to Tuesday ordering individuals to evacuate as a nearby wildfire rapidly magnified, threatening homes in the beach neighborhood. The brush fire blaze - called the Franklin Fire - forced students at Pepperdine University in Malibu to shelter in place overnight, as it knocked out power and led some trainees to leave to the school's commons and library. Right now, it looks like the bulk of the danger of the fire has passed us. A lot of what surrounds us is...

Pollution

New Jersey wildfire continues to grow despite rains

Rainfall did little to slow a. wildfire burning on the border of New york city and New Jersey on. Monday, officials said, as strong winds assisted the fire grow. The Jennings Creek Fire, situated about 30 miles northwest of. New York City, has actually now torched some 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares). and is 20% consisted of, according to authorities at a press. conference provided by the New york city State Parks department. Half of the containment is in New York and the other half is. in New Jersey, authorities stated, adding that rains overnight. did allow firefighting crews to rest....

Pollution

Rain may help New Jersey wildfire battle, gusts threaten to fan California fire

The first measurable rains over New Jersey in weeks raised hopes on Monday of offing a. rash of wildfires that has actually afflicted the state, while more powerful. winds brought issue that a California blaze that had already. damaged lots of structures might start expanding once again. Wildfire break outs are a relatively common occurrence in. California, however the East Coast blazes are unusual. The largest. of them has torched some 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in a. forested location straddling the New YorkNew Jersey border. The blaze, called the Jennings Creek fire, has currently. killed a single person, an 18-year-old...

Pollution

Thousands under evacuation near Los Angeles as wildfire torches homes

Over 10 thousand people were bought to leave communities northwest of Los Angeles as strong seasonal winds drove a wildfire down tinderdry hillsides into ranches and homes, authorities said. Firemens and cops cleared citizens from areas near Camarillo before homes were fired by ashes blown two miles (3.2 km) from the fire front, Ventura County fire department Captain Tony McHale said by phone from near the blaze. It resembles trying to put out a blowtorch with a squirt weapon, said McHale of the fire which began in a hillside canyon on Wednesday then tore west, driven by Santa Ana winds....

Pollution

EPA should address fluoridated water's danger to children's IQs, US judge guidelines

A federal judge in California has ordered the U.S. Epa to enhance policies for fluoride in drinking water, saying the compound presents an unreasonable prospective threat to kids at levels that are currently normal nationwide. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco on Tuesday sided with numerous advocacy groups, finding the present practice of adding fluoride to drinking water materials to fight cavities provided unreasonable dangers for children's establishing brains. Chen said the advocacy groups had actually established during a. non-jury trial that fluoride postured an unreasonable threat of damage. adequate to need a regulatory reaction by the EPA...

Oil & Gas

California says Exxon's recycling claims developed a 'public problem.' What does that mean?

California's lawsuit on Monday accusing Exxon of sustaining worldwide plastic waste pollution by misleading the general public about the constraints of recycling is the most recent in a line of recent cases based upon a centuriesold legal theory referred to as public annoyance. Here is a look at how public annoyance claims work, how such claims have fared and what it might mean for California's effort. WHAT IS PUBLIC NUISANCE? A public problem claim is one that can be brought against defendants based on behavior that disrupts a right that belongs to the general public, rather than to an individual....

Oil & Gas Exploration

United States Coast Guard states no remaining recoverable oil sheen seen off California

The U.S. Coast Guard stated on Saturday it did not observe any remaining recoverable oil shine during a morning overflight off the coast of Huntington beach, California. On Friday, the firm said it was attempting to determine the source of an oil spill off the coast after the shine, estimated at 2.5 miles (4 km) in length and 0.5 miles (800 meters) in width, was found when a Coast Guard helicopter flew over the site at dawn. Tar balls were observed along the shoreline in Huntington Beach, and onshore recovery groups will assess the coastline and eliminate them as required,...

Pollution

Chevron to pay over $13 million in settlement for Kern County oil spills

Chevron will pay $13.1. million in settlement agreements with 2 California state. agencies for previous oil spills in Kern County, Bakersfield, the. California natural deposits agency stated on Wednesday. Chevron, which has actually currently paid for the clean-up expenses for. its oil spills in 2019, will pay $5.6 million to the California. Department of Conservation, and $7.5 million to California. Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the agency stated in a. statement. Chevron spilled a minimum of 800,000 gallons of oil and. water into a creek bed in Kern county in 2019, according to. local media business. The fine is...

Pollution

US court maintains EPA choice to approve California electric-vehicle guidelines

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's choice to grant California a waiver to set its own tailpipe emissions limitations and electricvehicle requirements. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined a legal challenge from 17 Republican-led states and entities that produce or sell liquid fuels. The EPA in March 2022 under President Joe Biden brought back California's capability to set its own zero-emission car sales required and tailpipe emissions limitations through 2025, reversing a. 2019 decision by then-President Donald Trump. California Guv Gavin Newsom said the court agreed....